Dr Anke Ramakers is an Assistant Professor of Criminology at the Department of Criminology and the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology at Leiden University, where she directs research into punishment. She is also involved in research into vulnerable groups and inequality.

More information about Anke Ramakers

General

Dr Anke Ramakers is an Assistant Professor of Criminology at the Department of Criminology and the Institute of Criminal Law and Crimonology at Leiden University, where she directs research into punishment. She is also involved in research into vulnerable groups and inequality.

Anke has a background in sociology and specialises in quantitative methods. Her interest in social inequality led her to study criminal behaviour.

The aim of Anke’s research is to understand why many justice-involved individuals struggle to reintegrate into society. Most of her research projects focus on criminal behaviour and income. She uses quantitative methods and longitudinal data on prisoner cohorts and population datasets to study the work-crime dynamic and how those outcomes are affected by interventions.

During her Phd research, Anke studied the impact of imprisonment and length of imprisonment on recidivism and quality of employment. She was awarded a Veni grant by the Dutch research Council (NWO) for her research entitled 'Aan een baan, uit de problemen?' (meaning 'In a job, out of trouble?'). Through this project, she helped explain why many justice-involved individuals fail to integrate and reintegrate into society and develop evidence-based policy responses to the reintegration problems experienced by high-risk groups. A Lorentz grant enabled her to coorganise the interactive workshop 'Criminal Justice Settings, Crime, and Reintegration' for Dutch and international academics and stakeholders.

A common feature of Anke's work is that she studies data within various contexts. This enables research into whether the effects of interventions are context specific and has led to an extensive international network. Her work has also focused on the correct definition of successful reintegration. Common static measures in the field (the likelihood of employment and recidivism) provide only limited information on reintegration at any given time and the longer-term options. Anke uses detailed longitudinal data to study how individuals spend their time and to model reintegration as a process. Through different projects, she studies changes in housing situations, type of work, problematic debts, benefit dependency, the role of family and friends, the certificate of conduct (VOG) and how various income sources are combined to make ends meet. Interventions outside of criminal law are another area of interest. Justice-involved individuals often report problems in multiple life domains and experience many different types of interventions during their lifetime (including prison sentences, community service orders, fines, community sanction orders, active labour market programmes, debt restructuring, family interventions and health interventions). Anke is examining how this complexity is managed by conducting a multidisciplinary assessment of community court projects in the Netherlands. In collaboration with economists, Anke is exploring the impact of active labour market programmes (ALMPs) and benefit policy on criminal behaviour.

Teaching

Anke has held a weekly research consultation session for students and staff for many years. She has also supervised many bachelor's and master's theses. She currently teaches the bachelor's course on Criminological Research Methods II and the master's course on Risk Assessment. She also coordinates a postgraduate training course for probation service employees.